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Welcome to
Middle School Reading!

Hello! Welcome back to school!

 

My name is Katie Forlenza and I’m blessed to begin the next “chapter” of my career as St. Joseph Catholic School’s new Middle School Reading Teacher! I hold a B.S.Ed. in Elementary and Middle School Education with subject area endorsements in Reading, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and Art from Northern Illinois University. I also hold a Master of Arts degree in Teaching and Leadership from Saint Xavier University. Throughout my early teaching years, I enjoyed many experiences working with students, developing curriculum, and leading reading instruction as a literacy coach for three school districts. For the past eighteen years as our children have grown, my career path took me to a work from home position where I have been aligning and composing curriculum content for publishers in all grade and subject areas nationwide. I am beyond excited for this new adventure and the opportunity to get back into the classroom to teach my favorite subject.

 

When I am not working, I am a very busy mom to four amazing children, ages 5, 11, 15 and 17! I love to attend our children’s sporting events, travel, read, bake, decorate, volunteer, attend Mass, cheer on the Chicago Blackhawks, and spend time with my husband, our children, and our five pets (three dogs, a cat, and a gecko). I am also currently working on a new project and am excited to be in the early stages of writing a children’s book about a very heroic and special dog.

 

I look forward to sharing my educational experiences and love for reading with our amazing middle school students! We are going to have a fantastic year!

 

Posts

Week at a Glance - September 2-5, 2025

Grade 6 Learning Objectives:

Weekly Comprehension - Students will monitor comprehension by keeping track of how well they understand the material. Students will ask questions, take notes, and paraphrase nonfiction passages in class with guided instruction. 

Context Clues - Students will think about the meaning of boldfaced words in text, go back to the text, and underline the words or sentences that give clues to the boldfaced word meanings. Students will find opposite meanings of words, along with words closest in meaning. Students will also work with pairs of sentences that focus on multiple-meaning words. 

Latin & Greek - Students will increase retention of new words and expand their vocabulary by working with the following roots:

fac, fic, fect (Latin) “to make; to do”

act, ag (Latin) “to do; to drive”

oper (Latin) “to work”

funct (Latin) “to work; to perform”

Unit 1 Word List: affection, agenda, coagulate, cooperate, deficient, defunct, facsimile, inoperable, malfunction, operational, petrify, suffice, transact

Unit 1 Workbook pages 8-11 are due Friday. The Unit 1 Quiz is Friday.

Class Novel - Students will begin their class novel, Holes, focusing on chapters 1-3. Throughout these chapters, students will learn new vocabulary, answer comprehension questions, and start a story element graphic organizer. 

Weekly Reading Log - Students will read a minimum of 40 minutes of a “free choice” book at home this week and complete the responses on the back of the Reading Log. Reading Logs are due Monday, September 8th with a parent signature. 


Grade 7 Learning Objectives:

Weekly Comprehension - Students will monitor comprehension by keeping track of how well they understand the material. Students will ask questions, take notes, and paraphrase nonfiction and fiction passages in class with guided instruction.

Context Clues - Students will think about the meaning of boldfaced words in text, go back to the text, and underline the words or sentences that give clues to the boldfaced word meanings. Students will use related words to complete meanings of sentences and practice the boldfaced words in sentences. 

Latin & Greek - Students will increase retention of new words and expand their vocabulary by working with the following roots:

erg, urg (Greek) “work”

vig (Latin) “to be lively; to be energetic”

ig, ag, act, eg (Latin) “to do; to drive; to act”

Unit 1 Word List: agile, agitate, allege, enact, energetic, ergonomic, invigorate, prodigal, reactionary, surgical, vigorous

Unit 1 Workbook pages 8-11 are due Friday. The Unit 1 Quiz is Friday.

Class Novel - Students will begin their class novel, Touching Spirit Bear, focusing on chapters 1-4. Throughout these chapters, students will learn new vocabulary, answer comprehension questions, and start studying the setting of the story.

Weekly Reading Log - Students will read a minimum of 50 minutes of a “free choice” book at home this week and complete the responses on the back of the Reading Log. Reading Logs are due Monday, September 8th with a parent signature. 


Grade 8 Learning Objectives:

Weekly Comprehension - Students will monitor comprehension by keeping track of how well they understand the material. Students will ask questions, take notes, and paraphrase nonfiction and fiction passages in class with guided instruction.

Context Clues - Students will think about the meaning of boldfaced words in text, go back to the text, and underline the words or sentences that give clues to the boldfaced word meanings. Students will use words closest in meaning to the boldface words, as well as show their understanding using related words.

Latin & Greek - Students will increase retention of new words and expand their vocabulary by working with the following roots:

phot, phos (Greek) “light”

luc (Latin) “light”

spec, spect (Latin) “to look at”

vid, vis (Latin) “to see, to look”

Unit 1 Word List: circumspect, elucidate, improvise, invidious, lucid, phosphorescent, photogenic, phototropic, prospect, providential, specter, translucent

Unit 1 Workbook pages 8-11 are due Friday. The Unit 1 Quiz is Friday.

Class Novel - Students will begin their class novel, Prisoner B-3087, focusing on chapters 1-3. Throughout these chapters, students will make predictions, learn and implement annotations into the book, focus on new vocabulary, and answer comprehension questions. 

Weekly Reading Log - Students will read a minimum of 60 minutes of a “free choice” book at home this week and complete their Reading Log. Reading Logs are due Monday, September 8th with a parent signature. 


Mark Your Calendars...

  • iReady Math testing is next week. Please see details from Mrs. Annunzio.
  • Tuesday, September 2nd - All School Mass (with buddies) Please join us!
  • Tuesday, September  at 6pm- Washington, D.C. Meeting (8th grade)
  • Monday, September 8th  - Picture Day
  • Tuesday, September 9th - All School Mass and 6th Grade Bible Blessing (after Mass)  Please join us!
  • Wednesday, September 10th - Food Pantry Collection
  • Friday, September 12th at 12:30pm - visit from Carmel Catholic High School (7th and 8th grades)
  • Friday, September 12th - SJCS Golf Outing
  • Thursday, September 18th at 6pm - Curriculum Night
  • Friday, September 19th - Rosary Launch and Spirit Run

Week at a Glance - August 25-29, 2025

Grades 6-8
Due to our iReady testing schedule Wednesday through Friday, we will be continuing working on a narrative nonfiction article Monday and Tuesday about how a teen made it through the disaster of Hurricane Helene and came out stronger. The article is titled After the Flood in our Scholastic Scope Magazine. On Friday, classes completed a vocabulary discussion and an article preview. We read and discussed the article as well as revisited the vocabulary in context. This week we will dive a little deeper into the article to work on exploring text features, key ideas and details, and summarizing.
 
iReady Reading Diagnostic Testing will begin on Wednesday, August 27th. We will also be testing Thursday, and use Friday as needed. Please stress the importance of this diagnostic test with your child as the results will help me as their teacher plan effective lessons moving forward this school year based on their academic needs. Please note there will be no homework this week as I would like each student as prepared for the diagnostic testing as possible. Some free choice reading at home is always encouraged, however!  Also, please make sure your child comes to school with a charged Chromebook, a good night's sleep, and a healthy breakfast. Thank you very much for your support. 
 
After the holiday weekend, we will be full swing into our grade level Latin and Greek vocabulary lessons, a weekly reading log, daily comprehension and context clues activities, and our class novels. Stay tuned for more information!
 
Important Reminders/Upcoming School Events
- Reading Procedure Sheets were distributed to the students on Friday. Please read them over, sign, and return on Monday. This will be the first homework grade (easy points)! If you need an extra copy, it was posted on Google Classroom and is also linked to this webpage. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
 
- Don't forget to have your child bring a Chromebook compatible pair of ear buds to place in their case for daily use.
 
- Please join us for All School Mass this Tuesday, August 26th at 8:30am.
 
- The Spirit Run is coming up Friday, September 19th! More information to come!
 
I hope your child is off to an amazing start of the school year! We had a great first week in reading class! I am very excited for what is to come in Room 9 and the endless possibilities of your children!